Editor's note: Bill Carter has covered media for more than 25 years for The New York Times. He's also a CNN contributor and the author of four books about television, including “The Late Shift,” an Emmy-nominated novel adapted by HBO. Opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. Read more opinion pieces on CNN.
CNN —
The age of the “all-body” deodorant (or “all over the body” as some marketing campaigns call it) has arrived. All the big deodorant companies are in it: Secret, Dove, Old Spice, Axe, the list goes on. That tells you all you need to know: there's something priceless about these scents.
In fact, following your sense of smell has often been a route to great wealth — at least for those skilled enough to sell solutions to the smelly, or potentially smelly, parts of Americans' bodies.
The latest trend is being embraced across the board: In near-ubiquitous marketing campaigns on radio, TV, online and anywhere people gather to be bombarded with messages, American consumers are being convinced by a bevy of scent-centric companies that what they've been doing to eliminate the odor of various parts of the body hasn't been enough.
In fact, all it takes to exploit this (or these) olfactory domain is to tap into consumers' anxieties about personal hygiene. Having long ago covered each specific domain, from the mouth to the feet and everything in between, the next epiphany was to suggest that, in fact, your entire body is not exactly covered in rose petals.
Lume, which first entered the full-body market in 2017, now has more than $100 million in annual sales. The full-body movement suggests that any unfortunate part of the body where sweat glands may be overactive could be a danger zone, so anyone with any kind of protruding flesh, like a fold in their midsection, could be at risk.
And the companies selling these products claim that preventing whole-body odor means just that: Secret's TV ads, for example, tell viewers that the product will help prevent unpleasant odors “from your armpits to your pubic area.” And just in case that message wasn't clear enough, the commercial's actress emphasizes, “It really does work all over your body.”
It was more subtle than overt, an appeal to those who've gained a little extra skin over the years, but it doesn't take a marketing genius to figure out that being physically fit is not a universal trait in America, so there might be a sizable market for it.
The numbers seem to speak for themselves: While it's natural to assume we all smell the same, the global deodorant market is projected to grow from $26.61 billion in 2023 to $26.96 billion this year and $42.18 billion by 2032. Full-body products have followed the traditional path of targeting female consumers first and then expanding to men, because human insecurities have no real gender implication.
But historically, and at least in modern times, the scent business has considered women its sweet spot. Of course, people have been wearing perfume on their bodies since ancient times, but the movement to eliminate body odor really took off in the early 20th century. At least according to Smithsonian Magazine, Cincinnati high school student Edna Murphy is credited with developing a groundbreaking product she called “Odorono” (meaning “Smell? No!”), which first became popular among sweaty visitors at the 1912 Atlantic City World's Fair.
The first advert, published in Odlono's newspaper, was a typical example of a shameless exploitation of female vulnerability: “The most humiliating moment of my life – when I was asked why I was unpopular with men.”
Typical because it's a recurring theme: Here's a later advertisement that appeared in Ladies' Home Journal, cited by the Smithsonian:
“Woman's arms! Poets have sung about them, great artists have painted their beauty. They should be the finest and most lovely things in the world. But, alas, this is not always the case.”
“Hurry and get me Odorono!”
The year after the ad ran, Odrono's sales soared 112 percent, the magazine wrote.
At the very least, advances in antiperspirants have led to widespread use of deodorants and increased satisfaction with the products, making them a truly useful product.
Other scent innovations have had less stellar records. Many early mouthwashes were little more than drinkable perfumes (with limitations). Listerine, which eventually gained the favor of dentists, was initially marketed as having a bad taste, and still is (its original fallback use was as a floor cleaner). Once marketed as a beauty product that women needed to stay attractive, Listerine sales exploded.
The less said about early “feminine hygiene” products, the better, but perhaps most telling is that the first big hit in his region was Lysole, also through its appeal to women who feared being “locked out of happy marriages.”
Yes, Lysol disinfectant. (Women were advised to dilute the product a bit before applying.)
Other products were even worse. It may be hard to beat Dr. McKenzie's Arsenic Soap. (Guess what the secret ingredient is?)
From patent medicines to exercise belts to bleach as a COVID-19 cure, Americans have been bombarded with a nearly endless variety of products over the years to improve their hygiene and health. Some work, some don't.
Throughout much of the early days of television, it was impossible to escape the barrage of Geritol ads, especially on shows that appealed specifically to an older audience, like “The Lawrence Welk Show” (though Geritol also had the honor of sponsoring the rigged game show “Twenty-One”).
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Bottles of vitamin supplements touting “more iron than a pound of calf's liver” boosted sales by promising to rid the “tired blood” of whatever it was. In the 1970s, the Federal Trade Commission went after the company, found it “grossly negligent, bordering on reckless,” and fined it $812,000, a then-huge sum.
This may be similar to the scene in the classic parody of “The I Love Lucy Show” where she grows increasingly drunk while filming multiple TV commercials promoting some kind of medicinal drug, and then downs a few glasses of Vitamin Veggie Men to improve her energy and tendency to “party too hard.”
Lucy couldn't make it through the commercial because she was overwhelmed by the high alcohol content in it. Geritol has an alcohol content of 12 percent, which no doubt had something to do with the unforgettable “I Love Lucy” scene.
Companies selling whole-body deodorants seem to be making a ton of money, but we'll never know if the company selling Vitamineatavegimen ended up making a ton of money. When it comes to marketing to consumers, no one has ever gone bankrupt by overestimating the smell or gullibility of the American public.
